Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Land & Climate Podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is Earth's climate written in the stars? | 07 Nov 2025 | 00:42:28 | |
Controversial efforts at space tourism, such as by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, have reignited old debates about the purpose of space exploration. What relevance does the world beyond our planet have to anyone apart from billionaires and their super-rich clients? Without defending the growing commercialisation of the space sector, environmental historian Professor Dagomar Degroot offers some answers. In conversation with Alasdair, he examines the solar system's influence on humanity - and humanity's influence on the solar system. They explore how humans have survived past climate shifts, and how human understanding of climate and space have always been connected. Dagomar Degroot is Associate Professor of Environmental History at Georgetown University and a leading scholar on the Little Ice Age. His first book, “The Frigid Golden Age,” was published in 2018. His new work, “Ripples on the Cosmic Ocean,” is published by Penguin and available to pre-order here. He also has a podcast telling the story of climate's influence on humanity, The Climate Chronicles. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Can Gulf petrostates really build green cities? | 24 Oct 2025 | 00:31:01 | |
In 2006, the Masdar City project was launched in the United Arab Emirates. Supported by $22 billion in state-funding, it aimed to be the world’s most sustainable city. Situated 6km away from Zayed International Airport, neighbouring a Formula 1 racetrack and golf course, Abu Dhabi’s eco-utopia is full of contradictions. Bertie discusses why oil-rich Gulf states like UAE and Saudi Arabia are investing in sustainability with Gökçe Günel, Associate Professor in Anthropology at Rice University. Gökçe is the author of Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi, published in 2019 by Duke University Press. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Has neoliberalism undermined climate action? | 06 Jun 2025 | 00:30:34 | |
Germany's 2025 federal election saw the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) double its support to 20.8%, becoming the second largest party, while the Green Party fell from 14.8% to 11.6%. The AfD denies climate science and opposes environmental policies on economic grounds. This week, Alasdair interviews academic Felix Schulz, whose recent research has examined public attitudes toward climate policy across six countries - three in the global north and three in the global south. The research found that core values – particularly those derived from neoliberalism and free-market ideology – are more effective than socioeconomic factors in indicating how people will respond to climate policies. Felix and Alasdair discuss how neoliberal thinking has shaped public opinion, why climate policy must integrate social and economic considerations, and how job security concerns in industrial roles affect political support for climate action. Felix Schulz is a postdoctoral research fellow at Lund University researching public opinion and climate policy. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Can the novel capture the climate crisis? | 07 Jan 2022 | 00:22:05 | |
Lauren asks Dr. Mark Bould about his new book The Anthropocene Unconscious. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Chatham House's Duncan Brack on the huge emissions from burning US wood overseas | 08 Dec 2021 | 00:35:50 | |
"In 2019, the use of United States sourced wood pellets in the UK was accountable for 16 million to 19 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, mostly burned by Drax. That is roughly equivalent to a quarter of all the emissions from the UK power sector." Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Edward Struzik on the urgent need to restore our peatlands | 19 Nov 2021 | 00:30:52 | |
"If you follow the developments at Glasgow, everyone's looking for the Big Idea. This, in my mind, is an obvious one." Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is Drax UK's single biggest CO2 emitter? | 02 Nov 2021 | 00:16:46 | |
Alasdair talks to Phil MacDonald, Chief Operating Officer of energy think-tank Ember, about new analysis which places Drax as the UK's single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the UK and among the top 5 emitters in Europe. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is Sweden's forestry model sustainable, or greenwash? | 08 Oct 2021 | 00:16:05 | |
Alasdair talks to Lina Burnelius of Protect the Forest Sweden about the Swedish forestry model and the threat that industry poses to biodiversity and the survival of ancient Forests. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| What is BECCS and what does it mean for climate policy? | 03 Sep 2021 | 01:01:04 | |
Alasdair speaks to Dr Dan Quiggin, Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House currently researching the implications of using Bioenergy with Capture and Storage or BECCS . Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How are preparations for COP26 going? | 15 Jul 2021 | 00:20:42 | |
Gareth Redmond-King, COP26 lead at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), talks to Alasdair about the preparations for the next climate talks in November. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Ember's Phil MacDonald on powering past coal | 29 Jun 2021 | 00:28:05 | |
Chief Operating Officer of energy think tank Ember, Phil MacDonald, talks to Alasdair about the new challenges of decarbonising the global energy sector and what has been achieved so far in Europe in the UK. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Sasha Stashwick on Biden and climate change | 20 Jun 2021 | 00:29:21 | |
Edward and Alasdair speak to Sasha Stashwick, climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), on how the Biden Administration is gearing up to tackle climate change and issues with the use of biomass for tackling climate goals. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Mike Norton on "transformative change" and science policy | 20 Apr 2021 | 00:28:48 | |
Edward speaks to Prof Michael Norton, outgoing director of the environment programme at the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). Mike speaks about the need to understand what 'transformative change' actually is, the gap between science and policy urgency on environmental boundaries and on the flawed concept of GDP. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How did China become a green economy powerhouse? | 23 May 2025 | 00:31:41 | |
From widespread industrial pollution to emerging as a green powerhouse, China’s economic evolution shows how grassroots activism has pushed ecological issues to the political forefront. Tianjie and Bertie discuss China’s green evolution, Pan Yue’s introduction of environmental nationalism (now championed by Xi Jinping), flawed provincial reporting, and whether the country’s model can be sustained. Ma Tianjie is a freelance writer and environmental activist based in Beijing. He worked as Greenpeace’s Program Director for Mainland China until 2015, and then as Director of China Dialogue Beijing until 2022. His book, In Search of Green China, was published in February 2025 by Polity Press. Buy it here. Audio engineering by Vasco Kostovski. Further reading: Après moi, le deluge: how a fight over garbage challenged China’s growth model, Land and Climate Review, 2025 Researchers unveil roadmap for a carbon neutral China by 2060, Modern Diplomacy, 2020 Clearing the skies: how Beijing tackled air pollution & what lies ahead Sustainable Mobility, 2023 Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Doug Parr on climate change policymaking | 16 Feb 2021 | 00:38:08 | |
Alasdair speaks to Doug Parr, Chief Scientist and Head of Policy at Greenpeace UK about how British climate policy has changed and what might happen after the pandemic. Doug also speaks about greenhouse gas removal technologies, what 'negative emissions' are and the risks of rising 'institutional greenwash' in climate policy and business. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Are we prepared for geoengineering? | 09 May 2025 | 00:31:48 | |
A UK government agency recently announced it would spend £57 million on a controversial project to develop geoengineering technologies. The Exploring Climate Cooling Programme will fund 21 international research teams to conduct small-scale, controlled outdoor experiments to thicken Arctic sea ice and brighten clouds, to prevent global warming from increasing past irreversible tipping points. Geoengineering has long been a point of contention amongst scientists, environmental academics and conspiracy theorists - each firm in their beliefs about whether such interventions are necessary, effective, or risk irreversibly damaging the planet. Alasdair speaks with two academics studying geoengineering - Albert Van Wijngaarden and Adrian Hindes - who call for nuanced understanding and more productive conversation between the advocates and opposers of such radical interventions. They discuss the history of polar and solar geoengineering, the risks involved, and the lack of global governance. If you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned - we plan to explore geoengineering in more detail in the future. Further reading: Plans to cool the Earth by blocking sunlight are gaining momentum but critical voices risk being excluded, October 2024, Albert Van Wijngaarden and Adrian Hindes Do-or-Die: Should we be talking about geoengineering?, December 2022, Land and Climate Review Soviet and Russian perspectives on geoengineering and climate management - Oldfield, J. D., & Poberezhskaya, M. (2023). .Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Controversial geoengineering projects to test Earth-cooling tech funded by UK agency, May 2025, Nature Not such a bright idea: cooling the Earth by reflecting sunlight back to space is a dangerous distraction, March 2024, The Conversation Securing the ‘great white shield’? Climate change, Arctic security and the geopolitics of solar geoengineering, August 2024, Nordic International Studies Association After Geoengineering: Climate Tragedy, Repair and Restoration, 2019, Holly Jean Buck, Verso Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Has Russia committed ecocide in Ukraine? | 25 Apr 2025 | 00:35:22 | |
On 6th June 2023, the Nova Kakhovka dam was breached while under Russian occupation, releasing a wave of toxic pollution into Ukraine’s rivers. The number of casualties – both human and animal – may never be fully known. Ukraine is one of a small number of countries to include ecocide in its domestic criminal code, and the destruction of Kakhovka Dam is one of hundreds of incidents that prosecutors are studying while building environmental damages cases against Russia. On the global stage, Ukraine is leading efforts for the International Criminal Court to recognise ecocide as the fifth core international crime, alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and aggression. Bertie speaks to Darya Tsymbalyuk, Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago, about her new book, “Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War.” They discuss the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, the sensory impact of war, and Tsymbalyuk’s intention to bring Ukrainian environmentalists and humanities scholars into this growing legal dialogue. Buy a copy of Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War from Polity Press here. Further reading: Destruction og Ukraine dam casued 'toxic timebomb' of heavy metals, study finds, The Guardian, March 2025 Ukraine's Ravaged Environment, The New York Times, April 2025 Constellations of Ukranian Thought and the Environmental Humanities, Tanya Richardson and Darya Tsymbalyuk, 2024 What my body taught me about being a scholar of Ukraine and from Ukraine in times of Russia’s war of aggression, Springer Nature – Darya Tsymbalyuk, July 2023 The unlikely species entangled in Ukraine's resistance to Russia, BBC, February 2024 A Landmine Detonates in the Woods, IWM – Darya Tsymbalyuk, October 2022 Darya’s fundraising for Ukraine Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How is mining in Sweden affecting Indigenous Saami communities? | 11 Apr 2025 | 00:23:25 | |
In 2022, the Swedish government granted an exploitation concession to Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB — a subsidiary of British company named Beowulf Mining — to develop an open-pit iron mine in Northern Sweden. The decision has been opposed by both Indigenous and environmental activists, who have expressed concerns about the mine’s impacts on Saami communities and the surrounding ecology. Bertie speaks to Tor Tuorda about the long history of extraction and exploitation in the region, the erasure of Saami culture, and resistance from Indigenous and environmental activists. Tor Tuorda is a nature photographer and Indigenous campaigner based in Jokkmokk. He is a long-time opponent of the Kallak mine, and a prominent voice in Saami activism. Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovski. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Have monopolies broken agricultural markets? | 28 Mar 2025 | 00:35:23 | |
Nearly half of the global agriculture market is controlled by four companies. This level of concentration - driven by decades of mergers and poor regulation - has allowed agribusiness “titans” to dominate the farming sector. Alasdair talks to Dr Jennifer Clapp, author of a new book about corporate domination of the farm sector and why it matters. Alasdair and Jennifer discuss how and why mass-merging has led to market distortions and high prices, and what solutions could improve the state of the sector. Dr. Jennifer Clapp is a Professor at the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and the Scientific Advisory Committee of the UN Food Systems Coordination Hub. Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Why are foreign companies suing governments that decarbonise? | 14 Mar 2025 | 00:24:54 | |
It is becoming common for the fossil fuel industry to sue governments that attempt to decarbonise over “lost future profits.” They do so via an obscure part of international law called international-state dispute settlements (ISDS) that can allow them to extract billions in public money. Alasdair speaks to Eunjung Lee, a senior policy advisor at think tank E3G. The two discuss how ISDS began, how the international treaties came to being predatory, and what measures countries should take to prevent the exploitation of the claims. Eunjung Lee is a senior policy advisor at think tank E3G and is the lead investigator of international investment governance. She previously served as a South Korean diplomat and has worked in the Korean embassy in London. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| What does space privatisation mean for climate? | 28 Feb 2025 | 00:30:44 | |
With India kicking off 2025 with an historic space-docking experiment, and Elon Musk's growing power in the US government raising questions over the future of his spacecraft and satellite companies SpaceX and Starlink, we may be at the dawn of a new era for space exploration. Unlike the 20th Century Space Race, however, it will likely be private companies that cross new mildstones - not public agencies. But who will regulate mining on the moon and tourism in space, and what are the environmental implications? Bertie talks about these issues with D. Raghunandan, Director of the Delhi Science Forum, as well as discussing the positive contributions of the space sector towards climate and environmental science. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Why has the US government profiled pesticide scientists? | 14 Feb 2025 | 00:25:22 | |
Alasdair speaks to journalist Margot Gibbs about her investigation into a US government-funded PR firm that profiled pesticide scientists. Last autumn, Lighthouse Reports - in collaboration with media partners across Europe - published an investigation into v-Fluence, a US-based PR firm that worked to discredit anti-pesticide scientists and campaigners. Alasdair speaks to Margot Gibbs, a journalist who led the investigation, about its findings and what it reveals about the agro-chemicals lobby. Margot Gibbs is an investigative reporter at Lighthouse Reports focusing on money trails and food systems reporting. Before joining Lighthouse she was a reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Finance Uncovered. Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovski. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| What is the future for Ukraine's energy sector? | 31 Jan 2025 | 00:25:35 | |
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shocked global energy markets, and changed the EU's long and short-term plans for decarbonisation. But how have three years of conflict changed Ukraine's own policies and plans around energy security and net zero? Bertie discusses this issue with Ukrainian economist Maksym Chepeliev, Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University, USA. Read Professor Chepeliev's research:
See our previous episodes on:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Can tech really save us from climate disaster? | 10 Oct 2025 | 00:30:08 | |
Global heating in 2024 exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, but most governments continue to extend fossil fuel use. Are we now in a political situation where decarbonisation and mitigation efforts are failing? Is climate disaster irreversible? Alasdair MacEwen discusses these questions with Wim Carton, who returns to the podcast following publication of his new book, The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late, co-authored with Andreas Malm. Wim also explains the desperate technological solutions being considered for carbon dioxide removal and geoengineering, which he argues could do more harm than good. Wim Carton is a senior lecturer at the Lund University Centre for Sustainable Studies. His research centres on carbon capture and negative emissions. The Long Heat is the second book he has co-authored with Andreas Malm for Verso Books, after 2024's Overshoot: How the World Surrendered to Climate Breakdown. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is the clampdown on climate protest a threat to democracy? | 17 Jan 2025 | 00:25:12 | |
In a recently published report, “Criminalisation and Repression of Climate and Environmental Protests”, Dr. Oscar Berglund and his colleagues identified four key mechanisms through which climate and environmental protests are repressed: the introduction of new anti-protest laws, the broadening use of existing legislation, excessive policing and killings and disappearances of activists.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is climate crisis really an economic threat? | 13 Dec 2024 | 00:22:47 | |
“The capitalist system is necessarily built on creating ecological crises.” Bertie and Ståle discuss the ways in which crises are defined, the drawbacks to arguments for degrowth and the potential solutions to the climate emergency. Ståle Holgersen is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at Stockholm University and a member of the Zetkin Collective, an ecosocialist group of scholars and activists primarily working on the political ecologies of the far right. Against the Crisis was published last month and is available to buy from Verso here. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How transparent are the new Indonesian President's business interests? | 29 Nov 2024 | 00:17:56 | |
One month ago, Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated as the new president of Indonesia. An investigation by The Gecko Project has revealed that Subianto has invested in or owned companies involved with rainforest logging, coal mining, palm oil production, and industrial fishing - but many of the companies appear to be inactive.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How we uncovered pollution in the biomass industry | 15 Nov 2024 | 00:29:44 | |
This year, Land and Climate Review’s first investigative series has documented more than 11,000 breaches of environmental law at North American wood pellet mills. Alasdair MacEwen speaks to Camille Corcoran, whose recent reporting was published with The Times in the UK, and Bertie Harrison-Broninski, who normally co-hosts with Alasdair, but here discusses Land and Climate Review’s Canadian investigations, which were featured on BBC Newsnight. They discuss the process of uncovering environmental violations at wood pellet mills owned by Drax Group, which operates the UK’s largest power station, and how residents in Mississippi and British Columbia say they have been affected by the pollution from the mills. Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovski and Podcast House. Read the investigations:
Related episodes:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How is Colombia’s sugar cane industry harming Black communities? | 01 Nov 2024 | 00:21:45 | |
As the UN Biodiversity Conference draws to a close Bertie speaks to María Arango, a lawyer at the international human rights organization Forest People’s Programme, about the impacts of the sugar cane industry on Black communities in the Cauca River Valley region of western Colombia. A new report titled The Green Illusion finds that more than 80% of the region’s wetlands have been drained in order to plant sugar cane, resulting in Afro-descendant peoples being displaced from their ancestral lands and stripped of vital resources. Bertie and María discuss the report’s findings and how international summits such as COP16 present key opportunities to protect the rights of Indigenous people that live in biodiversity hotspots.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is biomass power risking tropical deforestation? | 18 Oct 2024 | 00:17:08 | |
“In 2022, Indonesia only consumed about 70,000 tonnes of wood for electricity. In 2023, we consumed almost half a million.”
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How is climate crisis changing the US military? | 04 Oct 2024 | 00:22:32 | |
Bertie speaks to Sherri Goodman about her new book, Threat Multiplier:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is fast fashion creating a textile waste crisis? | 20 Sep 2024 | 00:20:32 | |
Last week, Greenpeace Africa published their new report “Fast Fashion, Slow Poison: The Toxic Textile Crisis in Ghana”. The report outlines the shocking environmental and public health impact of the second-hand clothing industry in Ghana - revealing that every week, up to half a million items of clothing from the Kantamanto Market in Accra end up discarded in open spaces and informal dumpsites. Bertie speaks to the report's author, Sam Quashie-Idun, about his findings, who is responsible for the harmful textile imports and what can be done to alleviate the problem. Sam Quashie-Idun is Head of Investigations at Greenpeace Africa and a member of Land and Climate Review's investigations unit.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Overshoot: has the world surrendered to climate breakdown? | 06 Sep 2024 | 00:30:18 | |
In 2015, 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement, a legally binding treaty with the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Will military emissions ever be counted? | 23 Aug 2024 | 00:16:12 | |
Many governments are wary of providing transparency around their militaries' emissions, and campaigners can be hesitant to focus on the carbon footprint of conflicts, rather than more obviously humanitarian issues.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is the race for minerals unnecessary? | 26 Sep 2025 | 00:36:28 | |
As the energy transition accelerates, critical minerals have become increasingly important, and the priorities of extraction for countries in the Global North are beginning to shift. The U.S., EU, and others are now exploring the possibility of on-shoring critical mineral mining - potentially bringing a divisive industry closer to home. This week, Alasdair talks to extraction expert Dr. Thea Riofrancos, who explains the tension between the harmful consequences of mining and the key role of extractive industries in facilitating the energy transition. She outlines the history of lithium mining in Chile, the environmental and human-rights consequences of extraction, and why we may have overestimated the quantities of critical minerals we actually need. Thea Riofrancos’ new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism, published by Island Press and W.W. Norton & Company, is available for purchase here. Thea is an associate professor of political science at Providence College and a strategic co-director of the Climate and Community Institute. Further reading Electric cars are drying up the desert, Meabh Byrne, 2023, Land and Climate Review The ‘critical minerals’ rush could result in a resource war, Thea Riofrancos, 2025, Financial Times The Security–Sustainability Nexus: Lithium Onshoring in the Global North, Thea Riofrancos, 2023, MIT Press Direct Endogenous Participation: Prior Consultation in Extractive Economies, Thea Riofrancos, Julia Falleti, 2017 World Politics Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Is green steel possible? | 09 Aug 2024 | 00:29:15 | |
Alasdair speaks to Jonas Algers about steel decarbonisation; what the options are, where there are challenges, and what is happening so far.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Are toxic chemicals in fashion under-regulated? | 26 Jul 2024 | 00:36:32 | |
Bertie speaks to fashion expert and journalist Alden Wicker about her book To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick - and How We Can Fight Back.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Does tax dodging limit climate finance? | 12 Jul 2024 | 00:27:25 | |
Alasdair speaks to former politician and French investigating magistrate Eva Joly about corporate corruption, tax evasion, and how these issues relate to the climate crisis.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Can renewables ever be profitable enough? | 28 Jun 2024 | 00:26:40 | |
Ed speaks to Brett Christophers about his new book The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet.
Further reading:
Other books by Brett:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Can a country become 100% organic? | 14 Jun 2024 | 00:30:04 | |
Few countries have specific targets about converting to organic farming, and when they have, it's often failed - Sri Lanka dropped its national organic policy within months in 2021, and only three weeks ago, France scrapped its relatively conservative ambition for 15% of farmland.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| What is commercial forestry getting wrong? | 31 May 2024 | 00:33:16 | |
Alasdair speaks to Peter Wohlleben about his new book How Trees Can Save the World.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Why is the EU backtracking on green agriculture? | 17 May 2024 | 00:27:27 | |
Alasdair speaks to Faustine Bas-Defossez about the relationship between sustainable farming policy and the European farmers' protests. Faustine Bas-Defossez is Director for Nature, Health and Environment at the European Environmental Bureau, a Europe-wide network of environmental citizens' organisations. Alasdair and Faustine discuss the Nature Restoration Law, reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy and what the upcoming European elections might mean for the future of EU agriculture. Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovski.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| How does US agriculture affect climate change? | 03 May 2024 | 00:29:53 | |
Alasdair speaks to environmental attorney Peter Lehner about US agriculture's contribution to global emissions. Peter Lehner is the managing attorney of Earthjustice's Sustainable Food and Farming Programme and former executive director of the National Resources Defence Council. Alasdair and Peter discuss the future of the US farm bill, the adverse climate effects of crop insurance and the influence agrochemical lobbies have on agriculture across America. Audio engineering by Vasko Kostovski.
Peter’s book: Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Can nuclear waste teach us about long-term thinking? | 19 Apr 2024 | 00:30:18 | |
Does our society have an addiction to short term thinking and planning? Is our failure to mitigate climate change a result of this?
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Are monopolies breaking our food system? | 05 Apr 2024 | 00:27:52 | |
Bertie speaks to Austin Frerick about his new book Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| What if climate politics is about power, not carbon? | 12 Sep 2025 | 00:41:50 | |
Alasdair speaks with Jessica F. Green, author of the new book Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them, about why thirty years of climate policy have failed to reduce emissions. They discuss why carbon pricing has been largely ineffective, how net zero pledges are misleading, and why focus must shift from measuring emissions by the tonne to measuring profitability. Jessica is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and an expert in carbon pricing and global governance. Her new book addresses the climate crisis through asset revaluation and is available to preorder from Princeton University Press here. Further reading:
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Why is Eni struggling to grow biofuels in Africa? | 22 Mar 2024 | 00:18:18 | |
Last month an investigation by Transport and Environment (T&E) exposed a number of challenges facing Eni's African biofuel projects.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Are Canada's sustainable forestry claims accurate? | 08 Mar 2024 | 00:31:17 | |
Following new allegations from the BBC that a UK power station is "burning wood from some of the world's most precious forests" in British Columbia, Bertie speaks to Richard Robertson about Canada's forestry sector.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| Are fishing laws doing enough for human rights and climate? | 23 Feb 2024 | 00:28:41 | |
As the EU butts heads with the UK over fishing policy, Bertie speaks to Steve Trent, CEO of the Environmental Justice Foundation, to get a more global overview of fishing regulation and its importance to environmental and human rights.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||
| What are the risks in storing CO2 underground? | 09 Feb 2024 | 00:37:27 | |
This week, the EU's Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra warned that "You cannot magically CCS yourself out of the problem". But the new policy he was presenting that day still called for 280 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to be permanently stored underground.
Click here for our website to read all our most recent Land and Climate Review features and pieces. | |||